Benihana - Bethesda

We were a table of vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians. The waitress claimed there was no meat in the onion soup. Upon double checking it was made with beef and chicken stock. A few at the table consumed it before we double checked and of course were sick the next day.

Twenty minutes after sitting down, the table next to us started arguing, cursing and screaming at one another. It went in for 40 minutes. This is not an exaggeration. Everyone at our table was visibly uncomfortable and the chef kept apologizing. At what points do loud obnoxious misbehaving guests get escorted out? It definitely wasn’t worth the $375 we paid. The manager apologized but it doesn’t measure up against the price and experience.

The worst experience of my life my food was cold and terrible

It was extremely expensive ! The young lady we had was new, she didnt know any english and she failed to give sevwral of us the correct food. She took forever to cook our food. Her tricks all failed and she wasnt involved with us at all. Even though our bill was well over 90$, we walked out of there still hungry. I won't be going back. Ill go to the "low end" habachi restaurant for now on.

Was celebrating daughters graduation and our Server she wasn’t giving us the same attention and service as she did the other family sitting at the table with us which I find very disturbing because she was African American just like we were. Maybe she thought we weren’t going to tip well like the caucasian family would or something, I don’t know, but We frequently visit here and have never experienced this before and are good tippers, but today she ruined her own tip treating us differently. I will be sure to never have her as our server again.

Garlic Butter on EVERYTHING 😋. Food was cooked to perfection. Our chef seemed a little nervous but she cooked the hell out of our food.

Had a really bad experience. Took forever to get a chef. Our food came at all different times. Some of my guest didn't get service . Other people drinks was on my tab. I didn't get my boyfriend's dessert that I requested on my reservation.

Always good and entertaining for all at the table.

Great family dinner outing!

We didn’t get the ice cream and green tea that we should have gotten as part of the meal we paid for. The service was very bad and disorganized.

Slow service but worth the wait!!

Sergio was amazing! 😘 The food was delicious, and Anna was a very good server. We had a great time for my birthday.

I have been here before and received horrible service. It seems like they either have new management or have just stepped it up. Mu order was done correctly and the waitress was professional and attentive.

Terrible experience. Reservation at 8pm and they waited 30 minutes to seat us. Once we got seated they told us they don’t have any cooks available. We waited another hour to get our order taken. The cook (Gomez) shows up and speaks in Spanish the ENTIRE time to the other group at the table. Completely ignores us and our order, gives the other family more food because they both speak Spanish, hides the fried rice from my group and gives it to the other group. Complete disrespect and i can’t believe i had to spend $160 to be treated like trash. I spoke up saying i did not eat mushrooms due to an allergy and Gomez ignored me, i said it 3x and then he responds with “don’t cry”- excuse me???? I have a food allergy and I’m telling you i said no mushrooms and he just laughs at me with the Spanish speaking family. I did not want to leave tip but i still left 18% even though Gomez deserved ZERO. Management was poor, host was rude. Horrible experience and will NEVER go back EVER AGAIN. I wish i could get a refund. I do NOT recommend going to this location in Bethesda. I’m usually a fan of hibachi but Gomez the cook was insanely disrespectful.

Terrible experience - in retrospect we should not have stuck it out but we were there for a birthday. First took a while to get us seated despite reservation. Even after getting seated (note they squished two big reservations into one table so we were all uncomfortable), it took about an hour to even see food. We kept being told the chef was prepping but turned out they had a full house and only five chefs for the whole restaurant. The table in front AND in back of us got up to leave because their service was taking too long with no chef in sight. Food was fine once we had it but the chef messed up our orders - at that point we just wanted food and let it pass. Two and a half plus hours later our kids were exhausted, our friends were still annoyed and we never ever ever want to go back. Farewell Benihana’s!

I remember when Benihana's opened when I was young and it was top notch. I can honestly say that I was totally disappointed upon my first, only and last visit. I made reservation but still had to wait 15-20 minutes for a table as others were seated. The tables were good sized but the chef area was very tight and it showed when there were two chefs cooking at the same time literally on top of each other. My family and I eat at Japanese Hibachi's quite often and have never had to pay extra for fried rice and the noodles. At $4 each, at added $12 more to my bill that I was not expecting. They seem more ala carte than providing full meals. My food was bland. It had no taste or seasoning and my scallops were half the size of what I normally get elsewhere and were extremely overcooked. In the defense of the chef, he did say it was his first night. Not an excuse I accept as I am the one paying the money in the end and expected top notch. As a lot of great businesses do, they expand to the point that they forget how the got there and the customers are the ones who suffer. I will continue to visit our other spots but will not be returning to Benihana's again. Totally not what it started out as many years ago. Sometimes you just need to go back to basics. 1 star

This is the second time we went in 1 month to celebrate birthdays because we love hibachi. They pack you at the table like sardines. Each time we had reservations. The first time we had 6ppl and after sitting for 30mins and having appetizers and drinks they came to seat 2 more ppl with us. I complained to the manager that it was not fair for us to wait for the others to figure out their orders and delay us even more so he moved them to another table. Yesterday we had 5ppl so they sat us with 2 others and that was fine. Shortly after they brought 2 .more ppl, it was so cramped and uncomfortable for 9 adults of 3 parties to sit at 1 table. I complain again that there was no room to put the plate, drinks and water. 2 ladies decided to go to the bar, i know they felt cramped as well. The hostess asked us to move down because my father's chair couldn't get close to the table for him to eat...it was that cramped. I asked for the manager before we left to relay my dissatisfaction of spending over $300 & feeling cramped and uncomfortable. I own a restaurant for 14yrs now so i understand the need for efficiency but there has to be balance with comfort.

Being going to Bennihana Bethesda for years. Good food.

It was entertaining. I can tell a clear difference between the chefs/cooks in each table. Some had great energy, others looked like they were bored and just trying to get through the hours to get out of work. That said, our server Sergio was great and my whole family was engaged and happy.
Area of opportunity, in my opinion is the long wait at the table for the chef. We had a 6:15 reservation, but did not see a chef at our table until after 7pm. That is a long wait with two small kiddos (5yo and 16mo). Thank you!

Compared to other hibachi spots, this is a decent place. Limited options. We had my teenage daughter's bday at one table and my husband's at another. Restaurant tried to seat 10 people at a table and that is RIDICULOUS. They insisted that they fit 10 people all of the time. WHATEVER. Then, we waited 20 minutes AFTER the bill was paid for them to deliver tempura ice cream and to sing happy birthday. They claimed the tempura took a long time to make-- but tempura is FLASH FRIED. They had no percussion during happy birthday song and took no photos of either my daughter or my husband. We dropped about $600 for a so-so experience.

The food and experience is good but the restaurant is aging and updates are needed. The place seems dated and the service is slow.

The hostess’ were not friendly or helpful. But other than that we had a nice time

I made reservations for my birthday with 5 other guest. We first arrived my friend had parallel park his car on the side of the building. We were told (by one of the employees)that the meters needed to be paid for, in order to park there. Only to find out by the meter itself and another guest that they were free. When we were being seated at our table, there were another party of children right next to us. The only problem was they were running around, as if they were playing outside. The parent had no care in the world and neither did the employees. Their party had finish being served.
When my party and I were seated the waitress was very unpleasant. She took our order, but when the chef had came out and read back our order some orders were wrong. My sister had ordered for chicken to be teriyaki. Instead of the chef cooking her chicken in the teriyaki sauce, he handed her the sauce. After she had already spoken up about it. Our waitress never made an effort to check on my party. We had to go to first. When we asked for 5 to go boxes, our waitress only brought back 4. She took her time when we had asked for another. Only to find out all the plastic to go boxes were gone. So I was given a small box to place my food in. The same 5 asked for to go bags, and she only brought back 4. When she brought back another bag, it was torn on both sides. My sister asked for the manager to complain. Once she spoke with her about her teriyaki chicken being cooked wrong. The manager stated she would not charger her for it. But only took off 5 dollars from her meal. My sister then had to hunt the manager down, just so the manager could take off what she stated correctly.

I’ve been to many Benihana’s before and had the worst experience ever here. It took forever for the chef to come to our table and once he did, there was little entertainment and he even left 3 times up to 10 minutes each time. The food was bland and tasteless. By the time our meat was finally cooked, it had been 2 long hours sitting there. Our rice and veggies were cold. He seemed desperately confused and did everything out of order. He served the mushrooms last and made too much shrimp and extra chicken. The guy next to us had to remind him that his meal came with scallions. My mom and I were blown away at how awful this restaurant was.

I always go to Benihana on my birthday, ever since I was in high school (weirdly my thing, even as a 30-something adult!). We had a great chef, but the server barely came around - it was a really busy night so I don't blame her, as she was just darling, but they should hire up for busier times/nights. It was also ridiculously hot- and yes I understand it will get warm with teppanyaki cooking, but it was almost unbearable. Finally, it must have been prom season as two prom groups came in. Totally fine - I was a teenager once :) But one group had noticeably intoxicated attendees, and one girl was basically passed out by the bathroom. Not really the ambiance you are looking for during dinner (versus a nightclub, clearly you know what you're getting into there). I am not sure how it got resolved, as when I went back to see if she was OK the girl was gone - but if I were management I would be concerned about a liability as clearly she was underage.

Not the same customer as usual and the chef wasn't prepared very well. He was cooking so fast without allowing enough time for the show.

Server delivered our ice cream dessert to the table while we were still in the middle of eating our dinners. They clearly don’t want anyone to linger! Which is just as well, since it’s so loud that you can’t even have a conversation with the people sitting right next to you without shouting. The food is tasty, although very salty, but that’s about the best thing I can say for this place.

I am a long time costumer and the service, specially from the waiters/waitresses have declined considerably. It will be nice they are polite towards costumer when they need hel with somethig such as refills of water. However, the cooks are the best personel that Benihana has.

Delicious!

The food and ambiance was nice but that’s where the good review ends. We go to Benihana in part due to the fun of the table preparation and we were very disappointed. Our chef was a very young girl who couldn’t have had hardly any training. She never engaged a single person at the table or even made eye contact with us. She didn’t do the typical fun mid cooking activities that are so essential to the enjoyment of the tablefront cooking. Also she was so slow when cooking, all our food was over cooked and our shrimp was actually crunchy. You should not go to this location as they obviously do not care whether their chiefs skills are up to par.

Great spot for a birthday with the family. Chefs are fun, service was good, experience overall was what we wanted.

It was Mother’s Day say we took out the entire family. Of course it was busy, but my table was ready for the reserved time. Everyone had a great time and the food came out exactly as ordered.

For Mothers Day dinner they squeezed 10 to 12 chairs around the tables where there would normally be 8. The waitress was terrible and the manager had to take over the table. The noise level was high because the place was packed. It didn't help that the ventilation fan over cooking surface was squealing very loudly the entire time the cook was preparing food.

I would not recommend this location for holidays or special occasions because they crowd the tables and have higher than normal meal pricing on these days.

I’ve been going here for years it’s my favorite Japanese steakhouse the staff are friendly the food is good I put high noise level but that’s because they do trick with utensils and fire and they turn big fans on above the tables so it creates noise but I think there is no substitute for Benihana

Food and service were great. The chef was spectacular.

Table chef was very inexperienced. Very disappointed. That’s the main reason you sit at the hibachi table.

We were visiting from out of town and my daughter wanted hibachi so we figured this being a chain was our safest bet. We made a reservation for 845 and arrived promptly at 845. We waited almost 45 minutes to be seated and didn’t get our drinks until after the soup was brought out. The chef was unenthusiastic which made the show very subpar. Would not go back and would not recommend.

Great food and chef! Everything was fresh and fast service

We usually love this place but on most recent visit this weekend the chicken was over cooked & rubbery, the filet was chewy and the chef did about two tricks. We were super disappointed.

Early Mother’s Day

Mauro is the best cook in town! We love coming to Benihana's for family events.